Large rock bearing unique inscription discovered off Tel Dor coast by University of Haifa archaeologists

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 1, 2016

An inscription bearing the name of a previously unknown Roman ruler of Judea was discovered off Tel Dor by the University of Haifa, in January 2016. (Courtesy of the University of Haifa)

Israeli divers working with the University of Haifa have found a rare archaeological artifact shedding light on a previously unknown Roman prefect of the province of Judea in the time before the Bar Kochba revolt.A large rock bearing a 1,900-year-old inscription was discovered on the seabed off the coast, south of Haifa, in the Mediterranean Sea earlier this year, bearing the name of Gargilius Antiques and mentioning the province of Judea.The archaeologists were able to determine that Antiques ruled over Judea just prior to the legendary revolt against the Roman Empire, fought from 132 to 136 AD. The uprising was eventually crushed, resulting in the exile of Jews, and Emperor Hadrian's renaming Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and Judea Syria Palestina.The artifact, believed to be the base of a statue, was found in January 2016 as part of a maritime excavation at the Tel Dor archaeological site. The city had been an important port in Roman times and was active at least until the fourth century.

An inscription bearing the name of a previously unknown Roman ruler of Judea was discovered off Tel Dor by the University of Haifa, in January 2016. It is shown here before it was excavated. (Courtesy of the University of Haifa)

The rock, measuring 70 by 65 centimeters and weighing over 600 kilograms, was covered in sea creatures when it was discovered, according to Haaretz.

"Not only were we able for the first time to identify with certainty the name of the ruler who oversaw Judea in the critical years the Bar Kochba revolt; this is also just the second time that the mention of Judea has been discovered in inscriptions traced back to Roman era," said Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau of Haifa University, who was in charge of deciphering the text.Antiques's name was first found in an inscription some 70 years ago, but mention of the territory he ruled over was not preserved.At seven lines, the text discovered this year, Yasur-Landau said, "is the longest discovered in maritime excavations in Israel."It is missing a portion but is believed to read: "The City of Dor honors Marcus Paccius, son of Publius, Silvanus Quintus Coredius Gallus Gargilius Antiquus, governor of the province of Judea, as well as [...] of the province of Syria, and patron of the city of Dor."

When it comes to Israel, is François Fillon friend or foe?An examination of statements by France's Republican presidential candidate on Israel, Middle East conflicts, and the Jewish community

BY GLENN CLOAREC November 29, 2016, 6:49 am

PARIS — This Sunday, some 4.6 million French voters at 10,228 poling stations across France paid two euros each and signed a "charter of right-wing and centrist values" to cast their ballots in a decisive French center-right presidential primary election.

FREE SIGN UP!By evening, François Fillon was declared winner with 66.5 percent of the vote, beating his rival, Alain Juppé, nearly two-to-one. Fillon is now the favored candidate ahead of the May 2017 French presidential elections.

During his tenure as minister and Prime minister, the current deputy of Paris expressed himself on many occasions on a variety of topics of interest to the greater Jewish world, including the French Jewish community, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the war in Syria. His statements could at times be described as hostile.

Though the austere man was sequestered from major controversy during the campaign, since winning the first round of primaries last week, he has been criticized in the press for past declarations.On Wednesday morning, a new controversy broke out when Fillon, who was invited to speak to Europe 1 radio, compared the French Jewish community with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country."Fundamentalists are in the process of holding the Muslim community hostage. We must fight that fundamentalism in the way that in the past... we fought some forms of Catholic sectarianism and we fought the drive by Jews to live in a community that did not always respect all the values of the French Republic," he said. (It was unclear what precisely he was referring to.)

The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) soon responded on Twitter.

"The law of the land is the law: this Talmudic adage has been imposed on Jews since ancient history and requires them to respect the laws of the country in which they live," the organization declared.The Union of French Jewish students (UEJF) asked the politician to clarify himself and wondered about "the relevance of his remarks, which compared three phenomena that occurred at three different epochs and which reduces Jews, Muslims and Christians to three compact and indistinct religious communities."

'The insularity that once existed was not the Jewish citizens' choice, but the consequence of French society not accepting their peers'

Haïm Korsia, chief rabbi of France, had a phone interview with the former prime minister. The two men recently met at the Grand Synagogue of Paris where they paid homage to Shimon Peres after the Israeli politician's death.

"He insisted on reaffirming the French Jews' attachment to France and its national values, and their concern for integration into French society," explained Yaël Hirschhorn, his communications advisor."He also pointed out that the Jewish insularity that once existed was in no way Jewish citizens' choice, but the consequence of French society not accepting their peers at the time," she said.The chief rabbi "also recalled the role of the Great Sanhedrin, which was set up by Napoleon in 1806, which is none other than the proclamation of the guarantee of being able to practice Judaism in compliance with the laws of the Republic," she added.

However Fillion's spokesman Jérôme Chartier said on i24news that the candidate's words were misunderstood.

"François Fillon is very clear on the fact that sectarian aberrations can exist in any religious movement. Everyone knows it exists. But he always welcomed French Jews' integration, which is not a new phenomenon considering the Consistory dates back from the Napoleonic era. [...] French Jews are as French as French Christians who are as French as French Muslims — except those of course who take part in Islamic fundamentalism and totalitarianism and whom we have to fight against," he explained.A few hours later, François Fillon reacted to the polemic on Twitter."Some people have been trying to interpret a sentence I voiced on Europe 1 this morning," he said. "I never meant to call into question the Jewish community's attachment to our common values and to the respect of the rules of the Republic. This attachment is old and sincere. I therefore regret that some people dared to twist what I said."During the last broadcasted debate three days before the first round of the primary, the deputy of Paris denounced "the rise of a totalitarian phenomenon" — radical Islamism — more adroitly.It is the "rise of a political movement [...] which threatens world peace, which has genocidal ambitions and which wants to eradicate Christians living in the Levant and to oust Jews living in Israel," he declared.

A French soldier patrols in the Jewish quarter of the Marais district, Paris, January 12, 2015. (AFP/ Bertrand Guay)

Last Wednesday was not, however, the first time François Fillon stigmatized the French Jewish community.

'Religions should reflect upon keeping traditions that don't have much in common with today's state of science'

In July, when defending the postponement of some baccalaureate tests for Muslim students celebrating Eid-el-Fitr, he said on RTL radio that, "[Postponement of tests] has always been a French tradition. General de Gaulle is the one who amended that religious Jewish and Muslim French civil servants could choose not to work on important religious holidays.

"The main beneficiaries of this have never been Muslims, but French Jews, who are very intransigent on this issue. The truth is that very few Muslims ever took advantage of this amendment," he said.He was also under heavy criticism in 2012 when he challenged the Orthodox Jewish custom of ritual slaughter. He was then Prime minister."Religions should reflect upon keeping traditions that don't have much in common with today's state of science, technology and health," he said on Europe 1 radio.In addition to his polemical remarks about the Jewish community, Fillon has repeatedly provoked anger among French citizens sympathetic to Israel.In November 2015, following the Paris attacks, he declared that he was in favor of a "global coalition" to fight against the Islamic State (IS) which would include Russian, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian governments, Kurdish movements and the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah, whose senior officials he met in July 2013.

'We must support Iran, which is committed to combating IS'

"We must support Iran, which is committed to combating IS," he said on France Inter Radio. "I know many will comment on this point of view, especially in Israel. But for a question of survival, Israel has always known how to ally with people who do not respect international morals. And no one can blame them."

When interrupted by journalist Patrick Cohen, who reminded him that "Hezbollah's vocation is to annihilate Israel," Fillon replied that "letting Hezbollah threaten the State of Israel is out of the question.""Despite the fact that Hezbollah is a force that physically holds Lebanon and prevents it from acquiring the institutions necessary to continue its democratic march, the position I am defending is no longer isolated, it is also the position of the French government," he added.Shortly after, in March 2016, François Fillon went to Iran, ostensibly to discuss the economic and social situation in the country and the Middle East.According to the statement his campaign team published on his website, he insisted to Iranian officials about "the need to build a common international strategy to defeat the Islamic State and to establish the way for a peace process in Syria. He advocated for the Lebanese cause and against the internal divisions and the lack of viable institutions that are threatening the country. He also reiterated the French position vis-à-vis its ally Israel, which is entitled to security and whose existence cannot be challenged. The Palestinians would otherwise not be able to enforce their legitimate right to a state."Last Monday, on Facebook, following Fillon's victory on the the primary elections' first round, Jewish legislator Meyer Habib — who supported the losing candidate, former president Nicolas Sarkozy — expressed some concerns about this rapprochement with Iran and Hezbollah.

"François Fillon has very solid experience and an ambitious program on economic and social matters," Habib wrote. "But I feel concerned about Israel's foreign policy and security, and he adopted some conflicting positions on this matter. Though François Fillon recently gave proof of friendship to Israel — he notably opposed the BDS movement and denounced the UNESCO vote — I remain concerned about his desire for an alliance with Iran, the Syrian regime and the Hezbollah organization to fight against the Islamic State."As Member of Parliament Habib pointed out, Fillon vociferously opposed the recent UNESCO vote about the adoption of a controversial resolution on Jerusalem holy sites."The recent resolutions are unacceptable and I understand they shocked some people. France should have voted against these unbalanced texts that deny the historical reality of Jerusalem. France does not have to take a side and rewrite the history of others. We must maintain a moderate and objective position to help resolve the conflict," Fillon told Elnet website.

When questioned about the Paris conference, which was announced last June to prelaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Fillon argued that "we should bring all sides back to the negotiating table so that everyone's interests could be heard."'Organizing a peace conference in Paris without the concerned protagonists is nonsense'"Palestinians have a legitimate right to a state," he added. "Israeli territorial integrity and security must also be respected. The negotiations over the past few years have been a failure. Organizing a peace conference in Paris without the concerned protagonists is nonsense. I am against unilateral recognition, but for a dialogue and for the common will to reach a territorial solution. I will personally get involved on this matter. There is a need for a coordination between the European Union and the United States in order to restore some trust between the different sides."During a three-day visit to Israel in January 2014, Fillon had already supported the country's right to security. During his speech at the Netanya French Campus, he adopted a very pro-Israeli position.

Patrick Klugman, Harlem Désir, François Fillon and Pierre Lellouche, during the tribute paid to Shimon Peres at the Great Synagogue of Paris on September 29, 2016. (Glenn Cloarec / Times of Israel)

"I feel very honored to be your guest and to talk to the Israeli youth who are the soul of your amazing nation," he said. "Israel's fate and the region's stakes have always fascinated me. This is where the earliest and the most intense pages of humanity were written. I trembled for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. All nations have had to overcome issues to exist and to unite, but Israel is not a nation like any other."

After referring to the Holocaust, he explained that "the French Republic is and will always be uncompromising with anti-Semitism, as was recently the case with a humorist [Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala] who said abject remarks. In France, anti-Semitism is not an opinion, it is an offense. Things are very clear for me: opponents of French unity and rapists of memory can not exploit freedom of speech.""Because Israel has strong historical and moral ties with France and Europe, what affects you, affects us, and what torments you, torments us," he continued. "The existence of Israel is not debatable and its security is therefore not negotiable. Israel is our friend and ally and whoever threatened its existence would expose itself to our toughest response. To have peace, you need to know that France will always be on your side regarding your safety. Israel is the gateway to our own history. It is old Europe's friend and confidant," he concluded.

A few months later, in November 2014, despite these earlier words praising the Hebrew state, Fillon openly criticized the attitude of Israel on BFM TV. He explained that the country was "threatening world peace because it was delaying the creation of a Palestinian state" — a state he has pledged his desire to create since 2011.

"I am telling the Israelis that if they do not accept and if they do not understand that the creation of the Palestinian state is a sine qua non condition for peace in Middle East, they are not only taking risks for their long-term future, but they are also creating instability for the whole world. I think the situation in the Middle East is a threat to our own country's internal security," he said.

At the same time, however, he announced that he would not vote in favor of the resolution proposed by ecologists and socialist leaders who invited the French government to recognize the state of Palestine. He considered that this resolution "would have no effect, except perhaps to complicate the situation in Middle East."

In October 2015, the former Prime minister called on the international community to "put pressure on Israel" to make peace with Palestinians. "[Israel] is not going to be safe from the chaos that is taking hold of the Middle East," he declared on LCP TV.

"The idea that Israel could remain a peaceful and prosperous islet in the midst of this chaos is a crazy and false idea. We have to put pressure on Israel to resume the negotiation process and to let Israel liberate occupied territories. There will never be peace in Palestine if they are not willing to do this. Some settlements were established in total contradiction with commitments which were stated in previous agreements," he concluded.

On RMC radio a month later, he reiterated his call to put pressure on Israel for the resumption of the peace talks.

"The Palestinians are also responsible. The Hamas organization is unfortunately blocking the process and is not an interlocutor with whom one can easily find solutions," he said. "But at the same time, Palestinian territory is disappearing step by step because of the settlements. There is no solution in Israel without a Palestinian state."'The Hamas organization is unfortunately... not an interlocutor with whom one can easily find solutions'He also defended the idea of labeling products made in Judea, Samaria and the Golan during the interview — a measure that had been approved a few days earlier by the European authorities."It is very modest compared to what Europe should do," he said.However, in February 2016, when the campaign for the primary elections had already begun, he declared during a debate organized by the CRIF organization that he did not have a "lesson to give to Israel because [he] was not living there."

Hopefuls take part in the first televised debate between the seven candidates for France's right-wing presidential nomination ahead of the 2017 presidential election, on October 13, 2016 at the studios of French private television channel TF1, north of Paris. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / Martin BUREAU)"I am not against Israel but I am committed to the creation of a Palestinian state. I want peace," he argued. "There is a tendency to be tougher with Israel because it is a strong, organized and powerful country."He also declared he was finally opposed to the labeling of Israeli products.'There is a tendency to be tougher with Israel because it is a strong, organized and powerful country'With these various statements and positions, we can legitimately wonder how Fillon would position his government on issues concerning Israel and Middle East if he is elected president of the French Republic after the second round of voting, on May 7.As his recent remarks tend to suggest, would he really try to resume harmonious relations between France and Bashar al-Assad, Iran and Hezbollah to defeat the Islamic State while continuing to defend Israel's security and integrity?If he chooses to adopt such a strategy, it can be feared in the worst case that none of the concerned parties will give him any confidence and credibility. In the meantime, we can still wonder whether François Fillon is Israel's friend or enemy.

The interior of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin after Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht (German. English: "Crystal Night") was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.

Estimates of the number of fatalities caused by the pogrom have varied. Early reporting estimated that 91 Jewish people were murdered during the attacks. Modern analysis of German scholarly sources by historians such as Richard J. Evans puts the number much higher. When deaths from post-arrest maltreatment and subsequent suicides are included, the death toll climbs into the hundreds. Additionally, 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps.

Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. Martin Gilbert writes that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and the accounts from the foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world. The Times wrote at the time: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."

The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew living in Paris. Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany's broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.

BERLIN — German police launched an investigation Thursday after the addresses of Jewish institutions were published on Facebook by neo-Nazis, on the anniversary of the 1938 pogroms against Jews.A map pointing out locations of almost 70 synagogues, Jewish kindergartens, schools, memorials, businesses, restaurants and cemeteries was posted on the Facebook page of a far-right Berlin group, reported Tagesspiegel daily.The words "Jews among us!" appeared in the Gothic font used by Nazis on the map published on Wednesday, November 9, the day which marks the pogroms known as "Kristallnacht" or the "Night of the Broken Glass.""A criminal complaint was filed over suspicion of incitement," a police spokeswoman told AFP, adding that Berlin officers were investigating.

An anti-far-right group called MBR, which had spotted the map on Facebook, together with the office of Green lawmaker Volker Beck informed the Jewish institutions listed to warn them of the neo-Nazi post, according to the Tagesspiegel.

The map was a chilling reminder of the lists of Jewish addresses published on the night of the 1938 pogroms.During attacks of November 9 and 10, Nazi thugs plundered Jewish businesses throughout Germany, torched synagogues and rounded up about 30,000 Jewish men for deportation to concentration camps.

Athlete is first Israeli medalist since 2008 games, second female winner in history; Netanyahu, Rivlin congratulate her: 'Today you are our hero'

By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

The "Anti-Normalization" Campaign and Israel's Right to Existby Khaled Abu Toameh • August 8, 2016 at 5:00 am

For many Arabs and Muslims, the conflict with Israel is not about a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. These opponents have no intention of recognizing Israel's right to exist, even if it allows for the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. A leading cleric, Dr. Ali Daghi, Secretary-General of the International Muslim Scholars, wrote: "There is a consensus among Muslims, in the past and present, that if an Islamic land is occupied, then its inhabitants must declare jihad until it is liberated from the occupiers."

"Anyone who calls for peace with the Zionists should be brought to trial for high treason. Normalization is treason." — Ramzi Al-Harbi, Saudi writer.

Let us be clear: these are not fringe voices. This is mainstream Arab and Islamic society. What bothers them is not the "normalization" with the "Zionist entity," but the fact that Israel exists. For the masses, jihad against Israel is the solution, not another peace initiative endorsed by unelected Arab dictatorships.

Retired Saudi general Dr. Anwar Eshki (center, in striped tie) and members of his delegation, meeting with Knesset members and others during a visit to Israel, on July 22, 2016. (Image source: Twitter)

Arabs and Muslims are up in arms over a controversial visit to Israel by a retired Saudi general, Dr. Anwar Eshki, who is being accused of promoting "normalization with the Jews and the Zionist entity." If "normalization" with Israel is being denounced as a major crime and sin, one can only imagine what "peace" with Israelis would be considered in the Arab and Islamic countries.

General Eshki and a delegation of Saudi academics and businessmen met with Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj.-Gen. Yoav Moderchai and several Knesset members from the opposition. The Saudi delegation also travelled to Ramallah, where its members met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials........

Turkey has threatened to back out of an agreement to stem the flow of migrants to the European Union if Turkish nationals are not granted visa-free travel to the bloc by October.

Europe is trapped in a no-win situation. European officials say that although Turkey has fulfilled most of their conditions, it has failed to relax its stringent anti-terrorism laws, which are being used to silence critics of President Erdoğan, especially since Turkey's failed coup on July 15.

The German newspaper Bild recently reported a confidential plan to house all migrants arriving from Turkey on Greek islands. Public transportation between those islands and the Greek mainland would be cut off to prevent migrants from moving into other parts of the EU.

"No matter how uncouth, how merciless, how unscrupulous Western countries act, they have no chance of keeping the migration flows under control." — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, quoted by German journalist Wolfram Weimer.

Turkey has threatened to back out of an agreement to stem the flow of migrants to the European Union if Turkish nationals are not granted visa-free travel to the bloc by October.Although Turkish officials have repeatedly threatened to renege on the March 18 EU-Turkey deal, this is the first time they have set a deadline.

If the EU approves the visa waiver, tens of millions of Turks will gain immediate and unimpeded access to 26 European countries. If the EU rejects the visa waiver, and Turkey retaliates by reopening the migration floodgates, potentially millions of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East could begin flowing into Greece this fall. Europe is trapped in a no-win situation.

The migration deal, which entered into force on June 1, was hastily negotiated by European leaders desperate to gain control over a crisis in which more than one million migrants poured into Europe in 2015.Under the agreement, the EU pledged to pay Turkey €3 billion ($3.4 billion), grant visa-free travel to Europe for Turkey's 78 million citizens, and restart accession talks for Turkey to join the bloc. In exchange, Turkey agreed to take back all migrants and refugees who reach Greece via Turkey.

Turkish officials have repeatedly accused the EU of failing to keep its end of the bargain.

In a July 25 interview with the German television broadcaster ARD, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey had so far received only €2 million of the promised €3 billion: "European leaders are dishonest," he said. "We have stood by our promise. But have the Europeans kept theirs?"

The EU insists that the €3 billion must be transferred through the United Nations and other international aid agencies in accordance with strict rules on how the money can be spent: "Funding under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey supports refugees in the country," the EU said in a statement. "It is funding for refugees and not funding for Turkey."

In a July 31 interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu stressed that the Turkish government wants the EU to set a "specific deadline" for lifting the visa requirements: "It can be early or mid-October but we are waiting for an exact date," he said.

Cavusoglu said that his words are "not a threat," but added that "if there is no lifting of the visa restrictions, we will be forced to abandon the agreement struck on March 18."Under the agreement, European officials promised to fast-track visa-free access for Turkish nationals to the Schengen (open-bordered) passport-free zone by June 30, and to restart Turkey's stalled EU membership talks by the end of July 2016.

To qualify for the visa waiver, Turkey had until April 30 to meet 72 conditions. These include: bringing the security features of Turkish passports up to EU standards; sharing information on forged and fraudulent documents used to travel to the EU and granting work permits to non-Syrian migrants in Turkey.

European officials say that although Turkey has fulfilled most of their conditions, it has failed to comply with the most important one: relaxing its stringent anti-terrorism laws, which are being used to silence critics of Erdoğan, especially since Turkey's failed coup on July 15.

European Commissioner Günther Oettinger recently said he did not believe the European Union would grant visa-free travel for Turkish citizens this year due to Erdoğan's post-coup crackdown.Turkish authorities have arrested more than 15,000 people in connection with the coup attempt, and at least 60,000 civil servants, teachers, journalists, police officers and soldiers have been fired or suspended from various state-run institutions.

Turkey's EU accession talks also have run aground after Erdoğan threatened to reinstate the death penalty in Turkey. Oettinger said: "The death penalty is irreconcilable with our order of values and our treaties. No country can become a member state of the EU if it introduces the death penalty."

Erdoğan has indicated he is no longer interested in EU membership: "We'll go our way, you go yours," he said.

Meanwhile, Greek officials report a significant increase in the number of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey since the coup attempt. Observers say Erdoğan is using the migrant flows to pressure Greece to extradite eight Turkish officers who participated in the coup and fled across the border to Greece. Athens has refused to hand them back.

As the migrant deal unravels, European officials are discussing a "Plan B." The German newspaper Bild recently reported a confidential plan to house all migrants arriving from Turkey on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Public transportation between those islands and the Greek mainland would be cut off to prevent migrants from moving into other parts of the European Union.

The plan, which Bild says is being discussed at the highest echelons of European power, would effectively turn parts of Greece into massive refugee camps for many years to come. It remains unclear whether Greek leaders will have any say in the matter.

The European Union now finds itself in a Catch-22 situation. Large numbers of Muslim migrants will flow to Europe regardless of whether or not the EU approves the visa waiver.

Thousands of newly arrived migrants, the vast majority of whom are men, crowd the platforms at Vienna West Railway Station on August 15, 2015 -- a common scene in the summer and fall of 2015. (Image source: Bwag/Wikimedia Commons)

Critics of visa liberalization fear that millions of Turkish nationals may end up migrating to Europe. The Austrian newsmagazine, Wochenblick, recently reported that 11 million Turks are living in poverty and "many of them are dreaming of moving to central Europe."

Other analysts believe Erdoğan views the visa waiver as an opportunity to "export" Turkey's "Kurdish Problem" to Germany. According to Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder, millions of Kurds are poised to take advantage of the visa waiver to flee to Germany to escape persecution at the hands of Erdoğan: "We are importing an internal Turkish conflict," he warned. "In the end, fewer migrants may arrive by boat, but more will arrive by airplane."

In a refreshingly perceptive essay, Wolfram Weimer, a well-known German journalist, wrote that Erdoğan is exploiting Europe's strategic weaknesses to advance Turkish imperialism and his goal of Islamizing the continent:"A few days ago Erdoğan said: 'No matter how uncouth, how merciless, how unscrupulous Western countries act, they have no chance of keeping the migration flows under control.' In short, he sees mass migration as a political weapon to put Europe under pressure. In diplomatic and military circles, the word that has been circulating for months is 'migration weapon' because the Turkish secret service has been deliberately and massively promoting the migration of Muslims to Europe."Turkey now earns tremendous amounts of money on all sorts of migration services and has allowed the refugee industry to blossom. At the same time Erdoğan is openly pursuing the Islamization of Europe. With its religious authority Diyanet [a branch of the Turkish government's Directorate for Religious Affairs that runs hundreds of mosques in Europe], Europe (and especially Germany) are being Islamized in a planned manner; the refugees play a key role, as do mosques, to give a 'home' to the faithful in a foreign land."Erdoğan's favorite quote comes from a poem by Ziya Gökalp [1876-1924, a father of Turkish nationalism]: 'The mosques are our barracks, the minarets are our bayonets.' Erdoğan sees himself both domestically and internationally as a religious cultural warrior — as the patron saint of Islamist expansion."Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter. His first book, Global Fire, will be out in 2016.

Coup-Weary Turkey: Directionless and Insecureby Burak Bekdil • August 8, 2016 at 4:00 am The more Ankara feels distant to Washington, the more it will want to feel closer to Moscow.As Western leaders call on President Erdogan to respect civil liberties and democracy, Erdogan insists he will consider reinstating the death penalty: "The people have the opinion that these terrorists [coup-plotters] should be killed. Why should I keep them and feed them in prisons for years to come?"

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is attempting to repair badly damaged relations with Russia, even as he slams his NATO ally, the United States, almost daily, and accuses the U.S. military of supporting the coup attempt against him. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) with Erdogan (then Prime Minister), meeting in Istanbul on December 3, 2012. (Image source: kremlin.ru)Turkey once boasted of having NATO's second biggest army, equipped with state-of-the-art weapons systems. That powerful army now lacks command: After the failed coup of July 15, more than 8,500 officers and soldiers, including 157 of the 358 generals and admirals in the Turkish military's ranks, were discharged. The top commanders who were purged had made up 44% of the entire command structure. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the military's shipyards and weapons factories will be transferred to civilian authority; military high schools and war academies have been shut; military hospitals will be transferred to health ministry; and the gendarmerie, a key force in anti-terror operations, and the coast guard will be tied to the interior ministry.

Germany's migrant rape crisis has now spread to cities and towns in all 16 of Germany's federal states. Germany now finds itself in a vicious circle: most of the perpetrators are never found, and the few who are frequently receive lenient sentences. Only one in 10 rapes in Germany is reported and just 8% of rape trials result in convictions, according to Minister of Justice Heiko Maas.

Up to 90% of the sex crimes committed in Germany in 2014 do not appear in the official statistics, according to André Schulz, the head of the Association of Criminal Police.

"There are strict instructions from the top not to report offenses committed by refugees. It is extraordinary that certain offenders are deliberately NOT being reported about and the information is being classified as confidential." -- High-ranking police official in Frankfurt, quoted in Bild.

Showing now!Between the Private and Public Domains in Bauhaus and International Style Buildings in Tel Aviv

Book edited by Micha GrossPhotographs by Michael Craig Palmer and Ingrid Botschen

A photographer and architect cross thresholds to photograph the intermediate spaces between the public and private domains, between the exterior and interior of International Style and Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv.

Exhibitions

The center includes a gallery that hosts changing exhibitions about Bauhaus architecture and design, the city of Tel Aviv and contemporary art, design and architecture. The exhibitions travel, and they have been shown in Berlin, Frankfurt, Delft (NL) and London.

Permanent exhibition

We also hold a permanent exhibition called "Revival Of The Bauhaus In Tel Aviv", exposing 25 of Tel Aviv's Bauhaus buildings in various media including archive photography, architectural plans and drawings. This is a great place to get a first concept of the main ideas of "The International Style" and to begin to grasp its impact on Tel Aviv.

Showcase of exhibitions

The complete history of exhibitions that have taken place at the Center is displayed on the website, year by year. It includes architectural exhibitions as well as poster design, photography, drawings and paintings by various Israeli and international artists.

BAUHAUS

FRAGMENTS OF A STYLE exhibition International Style Architecture in Tel Aviv

Yigal Gawze's photographs capture the abstraction, the simplicity and the optimism of early modernism in Tel Aviv.He distils the essence of the Bauhaus to bring it alive in a modern city and concentrates on the subtle effects of natural light upon architecture, a technique that the masters of the modern movement themselves applauded.

Nonie Niesewand author and design editor was the architectural correspondent for The Independent newspaper.

Fragments is a personal inquiry into the aesthetics of an architectural style which has largely defined the urban fabric of Tel Aviv.

The abstract geometry created by the white facades protruding into space against the backdrop of the blue sky was the point of departure for the project. It was counterbalanced and enriched by the focus on past craftsmanship, present in the fine detailing of the banisters, stairs and windows.

"I chose to focus on the fragment - an essential part of the structure, which carries within it the genetic code of the whole.

It was also an attempt to convey something of the utopia of the years which saw the building of the "White City". Only in the last part of the work, did I step back to deal with the whole building and its relationship to the street as part of the city."